This article is written by Sudhir, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

Blog Day :

3792

Post No. :

14778

Movie Count :

4040

Missing Films of 1960s – 85
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The next in this series is a religious film from 1970. Yes, the times were when this genre of films had a serious following, and the producers in the industry would be creating films in this category. Today’s film, ‘Shri Krishna Leela’ is from the house of Wadia’s, under their banner of Basant Pictures. As we review the data about film production under this banner, we find that this has been one of the very active production houses over the decades. [Note: I am examining the data in the Geet Kosh from 1931 to 1980 only.]

Over the years, Wadia film production company went about its business under the names as – Wadia Brothers, Wadia Brothers Productions, Wadia Films and Wadia Movietone. Collectively, these banners have been active since 1933 till the year 1971, having produced 50+ films in various genres – social, stunt, religious, mythical, costume dramas, historical etc. In 1943, the company launched another banner, named Basant Pictures. As we scan their list of films, once again we find slight variations in the banner names as – Basant Pictures, Basant Pictures (Wadia Brothers) and Basant Wadia Brothers Production. Collectively, this banner has a listing of about 60 films between 1943 and 1980. The films in this list also cover just the same set of film genres.

A brief about the House of Wadia. The ancestors of this Parsi family originally settled in Surat after migrating from Persia. The original business of Wadia family was shipbuilding. The logo of Wadia Movietone prominently carries an image of a ship – it is a representation of their origins – the legacy business that started off their fortunes. The Wadia Group’s shipbuilding business was set up in 1736 by Lowjee Nuserwanjee Wadia. Later during that century, the group shifted its base from Surat to Bombay. They built trading ships, and later in 1800s they build maritime vessels for the Royal Navy (Great Britain).

Wadia Movietone was founded in 1933 by the brothers – JBH Wadia and Homi Wadia. JBH Wadia (born 1901) was a very well educated young man, who came into the film industry in the closing years of silent cinema. He produced about a dozen silent films, with moderate success. His productions were mostly adaptations of successful Hollywood productions of that era.

The other co-founders were Manchersha Billimoria, and Burjore and Nadirshaw Tata. Their first film – ‘Laal e Yaman’ (1933) was a major commercial success. In 1935, the company produced ‘Hunterwali’ with Nadia in the title role, along with Boman Shroff and John Cawas in prominent roles. This film became a surprise hit, bringing in a huge commercial windfall for the company. In the process, it set a trend which was duplicated by Wadias themselves and also copied by many other production houses. In 1936 came ‘Miss Frontier Mail’, followed by ‘Lutaru Lalna’ in 1938, ‘Punjab Mail’ in 1939, ‘Diamond Queen’ in 1940, and ‘Bambaiwali’ in 1941. However, by this time, the repeated use of the stunt formula lost its luster, and the company started facing losses. In 1936, the Tata brothers had already moved out from the partnership. In 1942, the Wadia Movietone studio was put up for sale. V Shantaram, who was moving out of Prabhat at the same time, purchased this studio and set up his famous production house – Rajkamal Kalamandir, at this premises.

In 1942 itself, the younger brother, Homi Wadia, set up Basant Pictures as a new production house. He started producing films under this banner using studio facilities at other premises. In 1947, he eventually set up his own studio once again. Basant Studio was functional till 1981. In 1990, the studio was inherited by Riyad Vinci Wadia, the grandson of JBH Wadia. He revived film production once again under this banner. However, he too passed away in 2003. The studio now houses the Wadia Movietone and Basant Pictures archives and memorabilia collection.

The film ‘Shri Krishna Leela’ is directed by Homi Wadia. The star cast includes Master Sachin, Heena Kumari, Jaishri Gadkar, Sapru, Manhar Desai, Kumar Dighe, Deepak, Tabassum, Ratnamala, Padmarani, Uma Dutt, Shekhar, Master Bobby, Master Ratan, Tuntun, Babu Raje, Habeeb, Dalpat, H Prakash, and Prince Arjun. The songs of this film are penned by Bharat Vyas and the music is from the mind of SN Tripathi.

Today’s song is a lullaby, in the voice of Asha Bhosle. On screen, the song is performed by Jaishree Gadkar, in the role of Maa Yashoda, as she is crooning to put the infant Krishna to sleep. Close to the end of this clip, we see a little more grown up child Krishna, role played by Master Sachin.

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2 Responses to "Palkon Ka Palna Nainon Ki Dori"

Sudhir ji ,
Nice piece of info about the Wadias .
They can be considered as pioneers nd pillers of Hindi Cinema .
Nd their studio was sold out to V.Shantaram , another strong piller – like dedicated person of Hindi Cinema .

The song is also very sweet , reminds
” चंदन का पलना , रेशम की डोरी ” of ‘ शबाब ‘.
May be based on the same राग .